Saturday, June 14, 2008

Michael Reagan: ‘Take Them Out And Shoot Them’

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake.]

I have little to no patience with the 9/11 Troofers — I’ve spent too
much of my career debunking crazy-ass conspiracy theories not to
consider them roughly the left-wing equivalents of the OKC and New World
Order conspiracy theorists (and they have their strands of right-wing
nuttery thrown in for good measure, like most of these folks) — but
earlier this week another right-wing nutcase — radio talk-show host
Michael Reagan — went completely ’round the eliminationist bend in attacking them:

There is a group that’s sending letters
to our troops in Iraq … claiming 9/11 was an inside job — oh, yeah, yeah
— and that they should rethink why they’re fighting. Who — we ought to
— excuse me, folks, I’m going to say this: We ought to find the people
who are doing this, take them out and shoot them.

Really. Just find the people who are sending those letters to our
troops to demoralize our troops and do what they are doing, you take
them out, they are traitors to our country, and shoot them. You have a
problem with that, deal with it. But anyone who would do that doesn’t
deserve to live. You shoot them. You call them traitors — that’s what
they are — and you shoot them dead. I’ll pay for the bullet.

Later on, he adds:

How about you take Mark Dice out and put
him in the middle of a firing range. Tie him to a post, don’t blindfold
him, let it rip and have some fun with Mark Dice.

Just on the face of it, this is vile and threatening speech that
should earn Reagan his immediate removal from the airwaves; it clearly
violates basic FCC standards. You can complain to the FCC here.*

But there’s a bigger issue at stake. I couldn’t disagree more
strongly myself with the targets of Reagan’s eliminationism, but if they
are engaging in treasonous communications, well, there are laws against
that. If Michael Reagan wants to urge their criminal prosecution, he
might be able to make a case for that; but urging people to take the
letter-senders out and shoot them is another ball of wax.

Much as we might object to them, they are exercising their basic
free-speech rights. Once you start deciding that we should start
shooting people because you think they are "traitors" based on free
speech we disagree with, then it suddenly becomes a lot easier to expand
the definition and start shooting lots more people.

Especially when you start adding into the equation Bill O’Reilly and
Ann Coulter and the rest of the right-wing gang that’s already shown an
easy predilection for calling all liberals and antiwar protesters
traitors. As Jeff Feldman says: Americans everywhere are tired of this.

We all remember Radio Rwanda,
don’t we? Michael Reagan just brought us one step closer. If the public
fails to stand up against this kind of violent hate talk, it will
become a permission-giving precedent.

– Click on the button for "Broadcast (TV and Radio), Cable, and Satellite Issues."

– At the next page, click on the button for "Unauthorized, unfair,
biased, illegal broadcasts (does NOT include Obscene, Profane or
Indecent material)" [because this complaint involves threatening speech,
which is illegal]

– Select whichever form of complaint filing method you prefer on the next page and proceed.

Sara Robinson has worked as an editor or columnist for several national magazines, on beats as varied as sports, travel, and the Olympics; and has contributed to over 80 computer games for EA, Lucasfilm, Disney, and many other companies. A native of California's High Sierra, she spent 20 years in Silicon Valley before moving to Vancouver, BC in 2004. She currently is pursuing an MS in Futures Studies at the University of Houston. You can reach her at srobinson@enginesofmischief.com.